ABSTRACT
Persons who are hospitalized for mental illness nowadays are often destined to become long-term residents of mental hospitals or to return to the community after a relatively short stay. In either case, the results for those least capable of reassuming responsible community roles are often catastrophic. With the advent of more and more interest in the community treatment of mental illness, a nationwide emphasis upon the mental patient’s return to the community has developed. Very often, even with excellent planning and the devoted efforts of mental health workers, finding meaningful and participative community roles for these individuals is not accomplished. For the majority of those who leave the hospital without a family to which to return and for many others who remain in the hospital a long time before leaving, the too frequent result is a lonesome and unrewarding life in the social status of ex-mental patient. Many of these persons feel, and perhaps rightfully, that they have been the unwitting victims of social forces aimed at segregating them from the larger society.
